Diane
Tells His Name is a (CIB) registered member of the Oglala Lakota tribe of
Pine Ridge, South Dakota.

Between December 2004 and
February 2005, Diane exhibited her first dolls at the "Spirit of the People,
Native American Artist Exhibit" in San Diego, California.

"Medallion
Woman" was the doll shown there and she was seen by one of the curators of
the Western Heritage Museum in Los Angeles (formerly the Gene Autry Museum). The
curator asked if the doll could be accessioned into their collection. Having an
art piece accessioned into a museum is an honor. It means that it is assigned
a museum catalog number and formal information about it and the artist is noted
and recorded for historical purposes. The object becomes the properly of the museum.
The Western Heritage Museum also accessioned White Feather Fan Dreamer.

After
that first exhibit, Diane's artistic career exploded with offerings of exhibits,
shows and dolls accessioned into several museums including the National Museum
of the American Indian in Washington, DC; the May Collection at USD in San Diego,
and the Barona Cultural Center and Museum on the Barona Indian Reservation.

Diane
Tells His Name has been an Artistic Judge at the Museum of Man Indian Fair (San
Diego) for 5 years. She has exhibited at the Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine
Ridge Indian Reservation, the San Diego Archaeology Center, the Indigenous Women's
Art Faire in San Diego and a several other places.

Diane
developed a line of Hudson Bay Dolls for the Autry Museum's Fur Trader Exhibit.

She
has conducted doll workshops and beading classes and continues to create new dolls
as the visions and stories come to her. Many of her stories are based on the tales
from her Lakota Mother, Bell Tells His Name, as she remembers the stories that
her grandparents told her.

Diane Tells His Name is
working to have a doll accessioned into the Heard Museum in Phoenix and is working
on a doll for the 2011 Red Cloud Indian Show.

Diane
currently has over 30 dolls in her collection with many more to come. Her large
family of 5 children, 13 grandchildren and over 20 foster children has kept Diane
happily busy the past years, but as of 2010, with the children grown and out of
the house, she is an artist full-time.

Diane Tells
His Name has her dolls in select gift shops and we are proud to be able to offer
these beautiful ladies in our webstore here at horsekeeping.com.

Note:
A CIB card, otherwise known as a CDIB card, stands for Certificate of Degree of
Indian Blood and is issued by the federal government's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The
No Face Doll

The No Face doll has its origin in
the corn-growing Northeastern tribes as the dolls were traditionally made of cornhusks,
with darkened corn silk for the hair.

As legend has
it, Corn Spirit, sustainer of life, asked the Creator for more ways to help her
people. The Creator formed dolls from her husks, giving the dolls a beautiful
face. When the children of the Iroquois pass the dolls from village to village
and from child to child, her beauty was proclaimed so often that the corn husk
doll became very vain. The Creator disapproved of such behavior and so told the
doll that if she was going to continue being part of the culture, she would need
to develop humility.

The doll agreed but couldn't
help but admire her own reflection in a creek. The all-seeing Creator, sent a
giant screech owl down from the sky to snatch the doll's reflection from the water.
She could no longer see her face or bask in her superior beauty.

So
when a Northeast Native American mother gives a doll to her child, it is usually
a doll with no face and the mother tells the child the legend of the Corn-Husk
doll. Native Americans want their children to value the unique gifts that the
Creator has given to each of them, but not to view themselves as superior to another,
or to overemphasize physical appearance at the expense of spiritual and community
values.

Similar to the Northeaster tribes,
the Plains tribes often use No Face dolls to instill humility in their children.

Since
the Great Plains tribe members' own clothing was often elaborately covered with
intricate beadwork, so were the dolls. Lakota Dolls are beautifully adorned and
depending on the activity they represent, they can be outfitted with various equipment
and items such as baskets, cradleboards or knives and hunting tools.

Lakota
Dolls are traditionally made from buckskin. The bodies are stuffed with cattail
fluff or buffalo hair. The hair is usually horse hair or buffalo hair.

Why
do Native American dolls have long hair? As legend has it, when you die, if you
don't hear your name called, you can't cross over to the other side. So, just
in case you don't hear your name when it is called, if you have long hair, someone
on the other side can grab your long hair and pull you over.